Oct. 20, 2009
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Less than 48 hours away from the Southeastern Conference’s annual Media Day, a select voting panel of regional and national media members have made their preseason predictions for the 2009-10 women’s basketball season.
Vanderbilt senior Merideth Marsh was a second-team All-SEC selection, while the Commodores were chosen to finish fourth in the league.
Marsh earned second-team honors from the league’s coaches following a junior campaign in which she averaged 10.7 points per game and led the Commodores in three-point shooting. The Louisville native has started 63 consecutive games for Vanderbilt and averaged 32.1 minutes per game a season ago.
Vanderbilt was selected to finish fourth in the conference behind leading vote-getter LSU, Tennessee and Georgia. Mississippi State and Florida rounded out the top half of the poll, with Arkansas, 2009 regular-season champion Auburn, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Kentucky and Alabama finishing off the list.
The Commodores have won at least 10 league games in four of the past five seasons. This year, the conference schedule will expand from 14 to 16 games. Vanderbilt will play home-and-home series with Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Kentucky, Tennessee and Florida.
Vanderbilt will play its first preseason game in 10 days when Union University visits Memorial Gymnasium for a 7 p.m. CT tip-off on Friday, Oct. 30.
LSU’s Allison Hightower was selected as the SEC Player of the Year with 18 votes, while the remaining votes went for teammate LaSondra Barrett and Tennessee’s Angie Bjorklund. Hightower led LSU is six categories and was fifth in the league in points per game with 14.9.
Order of Finish
1. LSU (206)
2. Tennessee (190)
3. Georgia (156)
4. Vanderbilt (126)
5. Mississippi State (120)
6. Florida (105)
7. Arkansas (92)
8. Auburn (85)
9. Ole Miss (70)
10. South Carolina (61)
11. Kentucky (40)
12. Alabama (24)
First Team
Ashley Houts, Georgia
Angel Robinson, Georgia
Allison Hightower, LSU
Alexis Rack, Mississippi State
Shekinna Stricklen, Tennessee
Second Team
C’eira Ricketts, Arkansas
LaSondra Barrett, LSU
Bianca Thomas, Ole Miss
Angie Bjorklund, Tennessee
Merideth Marsh, Vanderbilt